Finding the Right PPC Company

Did you know that, according to the 2018 PPC statistics, search ads can boost brand awareness by as much as 80%, making consumers more likely to remember your brand and interact?

Undoubtedly, PPC is the most effective marketing strategy.

Since not all of us are PPC pros, hiring a good agency to help us take our business online.

I created this page for those looking for the best PPC agency in the US.

Like most of us, I’ve burnt my hands with a bunch of agencies to finally figure out the perfect method to choose the best agencies.

Here is a list of the best agencies for PPC advertising based on an extensive evaluation methodology, which is explained in details in the sections below.

Best PPC Companies

You’ve probably contemplated whether outsourcing your PPC management is the right thing to do. The short answer is yes, it is.

If you want to learn the benefits of hiring a PPC agency, continue reading.

You’ll work with a team of professionals

If you’ve never been involved in managing a pay per click campaign, you might be better off hiring a team of professionals to do that for you.

Managing PPC campaigns involves a wide range of services such as geo-targeting, dynamic search ads, and remarketing, all of which require the proper experience and knowledge.

With a PPC advertising agency, you’ll skip the trial-and-error phase, maximizing the ROI from day one.

You’ll have more time to focus on your business

Managing a business is a full-time job, so it’s understandable if you can’t find time to dedicate to your PPC needs.

Paid ad management is much more than finding keywords and crafting an ad copy—it requires time, maintenance, continuous testing, and optimization.

So unless you have the extra time, don’t even start managing your PPC campaign.

 

You get comprehensive market research and proper strategy

Research is essential to the success of a PPC campaign. In order to be effective, it takes time and expertise both in the preparation phase and after.

Trends and technologies change at a rapid pace, and keeping up with them is already a full-time job.

If you want to keep your campaigns ahead of the curve, hiring a qualified team is the way to go.

Finding a PPC advertising agency is a complicated task. To ensure we feature only the agencies that offer the best services and employ the best practices, we’ve designed a specific methodology that covers the multiple points presented below.

The Agency’s Services

Why It’s Important

The selection of services offered by the agency is the very first step of our assessment. We start our evaluation process here with a good reason – you need to know what each agency offers before you invest your money in it.

We go through the services of each company and look for the following offerings:

• Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion rate optimization is the process of optimizing the landing pages to improve the number of visitors to customers. Converting your visitors into leads and eventually turning those leads into revenue is the endgame of every PPC campaign.

Conversion rate optimization helps in determining what searchers are looking for and how your business can provide value to them.

We make sure the listings on our website are experienced in CRO adept in design strategies that improve the PPC metrics, the conversion rates and value per visitor.

• Google AdWords

Google AdWords is the most widely used PPC platform worldwide; therefore, it’s the best method for targeting a wide audience, increasing brand awareness, and generating online sale and ROI.

We check how adept the company is when it comes to growing your Google AdWords account with consistent monitoring. Agencies that provide search, display and shopping campaigns get additional points.

• Display Advertising

The Google Display Network offers amazing advertising opportunities in your relevant niche by enabling you to display adverts across authoritative sites that have decided to participate in the display scheme.

Display advertising provides lots of opportunities to show your ad to the audience relevant to your niche. According to Google statistics, the Display Network reaches 90% of global internet users across more than 2 million sites.

This is a fantastic opportunity for reaching a broader audience and building brand awareness.

• Search Ads

Search ads are relevant because they help you place the ads in front of potential customers and entice them to consider your offerings and take action.

The goal of that action can be different – you can choose whether you want to drive traffic or increase sales or leads.

The most beneficial thing of this type of PPC ads is that you pay only when you get a specific result like when people visit your website through the advertisement or call your business.

• Ad extensions

App extensions provide extra information which helps your PPC campaign stand out. Not only do they boost the ad’s rank on the SERPs, but they also help you attract and convert more visitors by providing them with a better idea of your business.

• Competitive research

Competitive research helps you widen your understanding of CTRs, CPCs and other KPIs and metrics that are important for your websites.

Understanding why your competitor is outdoing you helps structure your campaigns better. A good PPC agency needs to excel in this category to get your better returns.

• Bid Management

Automatic bidding should be part of every successful data-driven marketing campaign.

We look for companies that handle this process with precision because it requires a good structure, analysis, and data handling.

• Geo-targeting

Geo-targeting is one of essential features of a PPC campaign. This makes it possible for your ad to reach potential customers in a specific location.

This is especially important for businesses that rely on proximity, deliveries, and foot traffic like restaurants and e-stores.

• International PPC

International PPC, or in other words world domination, is the quickest method to test new markets. At the same time, it’s also the method with the lowest risk.

Companies that offer a combination of PPC expertise with fluency in different languages and expert local knowledge are ranked high on our list.

• Remarketing

Remarketing helps in maximizing the website traffic by displaying adverts to people that have already shown interest in your service or product.

This usually comes at a lower cost than any other form of digital advertising bringing also enormous opportunities for conversion.

How We Check It

We get insight into the project management methods of each agency which provides us with information about how they handle the services they offer. We conduct this examination by conducting interviews with the agencies. When needed, we send interview some of their previous clients.

 

Reviews, Case Studies, and References

Why It’s Important:

Online reviews, references, and case studies tell a lot about how the agency does business and what’s their experience across different industries.

How We Check It:

Checking PPC agency reviews is one of the main steps of our evaluation process. We look for online reviews on Google and other review websites.

Moreover, we look for specific areas where agencies excel or fail. We check their communication with clients, as well as their reactions to negative reviews.

Having a negative review doesn’t scare us away, but rude answers and unprofessional responses most certainly will.

The next step is reading case studies, which provide us with an understanding of the techniques the company employs.

Furthermore, they provide insight into the agency’s performance, informing us about each team’s skills, expertise, task execution, and project management.

Last but not least, from these case studies we learn how the agency organizes its work and what the main steps are when coordinating campaigns.

Keyword Strategy

Why It’s Important

Proper keyword research is an integral part of every PPC campaign both at the start of the project and continually throughout, in order to ensure the best ROI.

How We Check It

Keyword selection is crucial to the success of a PPC campaign.

General keywords have tough competition during bidding, which is why it’s important to target highly detailed phrases and keywords.

The best PPC agency should be proficient in discovering relevant keywords. They should also be able to plan PPC campaigns in a way it supports your SEO efforts.

Additionally, the company should be agile in terms of avoiding the negative keywords that generate irrelevant leads, in order to avoid bringing you additional expenses without profit.

 

Creating Dedicated Landing Pages

Why It’s Important

The creation of dedicated landing pages directly influences the website’s quality score and conversion rate.

How We Check It

We examine the PPC agencies to determine whether they use recommended tools and whether they help narrow the focus of the visitors, thus preventing them from getting overwhelmed and leaving.

Additionally, we examine the agency’s ability to test landing page components.

They might use A/B testing or multivariate testing to monitor the performance of the landing pages and determine what updates should be made.

Ability to Create Structured Campaigns

Why It’s Important

Every PPC campaign consists of several components, like ad groups, ads, keywords, and campaigns. Each campaign includes ad groups that have their own set of ads, and every ad group contains different keywords.

That’s why your campaigns have to be well structured.

How We Check It

Well-structured campaigns give ads better visibility, attracting relevant clicks.

The best PPC management company should be able to create campaigns based on the structure of your website, the products or services offered, or your location.

More importantly, the structured campaigns should be easy to understand and manage in case you ever decide to hand control over to someone else.

Communication, Transparency, and Reporting

Why It’s Important

The best PPC management companies should provide a high level of transparency. Since you’re investing time and money in that partnership, trusting each other is important.

How We Check It

The agency should provide weekly or bi-weekly reporting, which would include detailed information about the cost of the campaigns and their performance.

The agency should also keep track of website analytics and determine what is working and what is not.

Besides being transparent, the agency should be able to communicate effectively. They should respond quickly to emails and calls, and also have meetings for updates, feedback, and approvals.

Long-term or Short-term Contracts

Why It’s Important

The type of contract that the top pay per click agencies offer helps us determine what clients can expect in terms of service quality.

How We Check It

We rank the ones that offer short-term contracts higher. That’s a sign they are confident in the quality of service they offer, and they know they will provide results that will make you renew the contract.

On the other hand, if the agency offers only long-term contracts, it raises a red flag and could indicate that they’re unprofessional and maybe incompetent.

Google AdWords Certification

Why It’s Important

Google certification is one of the things that sets great companies apart from average ones.

A Google AdWords management company has passed the Google’s AdWords program, which proves they have a team of PPC savvy professionals that implement Google’s best practices in their clients’ accounts to grow their customer base and increase revenue.

How We Check It

This is a simple one – we search for a Google AdWords certification badge on the agency’s website.

Smart Budget Allocation

Why It’s Important

Budget allocation is one of the most important components of PPC management as it is a direct reflection of the campaign’s priorities.

Without smart planning, a PPC project could never reach its full potential.

 

How We Check It

First of all, the best PPC managers have a deep understanding of a client’s goals and their budget.  

Consequently, they should be able to create a flexible allocation plan that will be continuously optimized according to the campaign’s performance and any other specific requirements that might arise.

We go through case studies and, if needed, conduct additional interviews with past clients of the agency.  The companies capable of achieving business goals with a small PPC budget rank well on our list.

 

How Flexible and Reactive the Agency Is

Why It’s Important

Considering whether the PPC advertising agency reacts quickly to client requests for changes and whether they can respond to requirements last minute shows how ready they are to capitalize on opportunities that might come across or to change things that hurt the strategy.

How We Check It

We com through client testimonials that highlight the flexibility of the team, or lack thereof.

 

PPC Management Pricing

Why It’s Important

The pricing of PPC services can often be a determining factor when choosing an agency to partner up with. There are several different pricing models PPC agencies offer, such as the following:

• Performance-based pricing
• Charging on the percentage of ad spend
• Milestone-based pricing
• Charging hourly 

How We Check It

We consider the pricing the company offers and their ability to customize and adjust their offers according to the client. We also double-check to ensure the agencies listed here have no hidden charges.